From the old standby spelling and grammar check to research and translation tools, Outlook 2007 has a number of tools to help you get your message across clearly. You can perform searches across a wide variety of sources, from electronic reference books such as Microsoft Encarta® to Web sites. A number of research options are installed by default, and you can add more to customize your searches. The default research options include reference books such as Encarta and thesauruses in multiple languages; general-purpose research Web sites, including Encarta Encyclopedia and MSN® Research and Business; and Financial Web sites such as MSN Money Stock Quotes and Thomson Gale Company Profiles.
On the Message tab, in the Proofing group, you can click Spelling and then select from the following options:
Spelling & Grammar. Performs a spelling and grammar check in accordance with the current configuration.
Research. This option performs a search across the sources you select. You can choose categories to search (for example, All Reference Books) or individual data sources (for example, Microsoft Encarta).
See "Configuring Research Options" later in this chapter for details on customizing the services used for searches.
Thesaurus. You can select English, French, or Spanish as the thesaurus language in the drop-down list.
Translate. The translation feature lets you translate small amounts of text between a number of common languages. To translate text in a message, select the text, and then on the Message tab, in the Proofing group, click Translate. Select the text’s current language in the From drop-down list and the language you want the text translated to in the To drop-down list. The translated text is displayed in the Translation area of the Research pane, as shown in Figure 9-47. if you want to use the translated text in your message, select the text in the Research pane, and then press Ctrl+C to copy it to the Clipboard.
Inside Out: Switch research modes
Once you have opened the Research pane by selecting Research, Thesaurus, or Translate, you can switch between the three research modes by selecting different data sources to search in the drop-down list. Selecting a thesaurus from the Reference Books list is the same as clicking Thesaurus in the Proofing group. Selecting Translation in the drop-down list gives you these options for translating text:
Translation ScreenTip. Selecting this option causes Outlook 2007 to display a ScreenTip with a brief translation of a word when you point to the word with the mouse, as shown in Figure 9-48.
Set Language. You can set the language to be used for proofing specific sections of text in a message, letting you check the spelling and grammar of multilanguage messages. The default setting is Detect Language Automatically, which should work in most cases. If Outlook 2007 is having a difficult time recognizing text in a particular language, you can select the text and then select Set Language to mark the language.
Word Count. This selection displays the statistics for the message, including number of words, lines, paragraphs, pages, and characters. You can choose to include the contents of footnotes, endnotes, and text boxes in the statistics.
The list of services that Outlook 2007 uses when doing various forms of research can be customized to meet your individual needs. To configure the reference books and research sites that Outlook 2007 searches, on the Message tab, in the Proofing group, click Research. In the Research pane, select Research Options. You can select from the following options:
Services. Activate services and resources that are installed by selecting the check box in the Services list. To deactivate a service, clear its check box.
Add Services. To add more services, select Add Services, and then select the provider in the Advertised Services list. To add a new provider, enter the location of the service in the Address box.
Update/Remove. To manage installed services, select Update/Remove to display the Update Or Remove Services dialog box. To update a service, select it in the Currently Installed Services, Grouped By Provider list, and then click Update to reinstall the provider for that service. To remove a service, select the provider in the list, and then click Remove. (You cannot remove installed options such as dictionaries and thesauruses.) Click Close when you have finished updating services.
Parental Control. If you want to provide filtered access to research services, click Parental Control to open the Parental Control dialog box. You can then choose Turn On Content Filtering To Make Services Block Offensive Results. You can also opt to Allow Users To Search Only The Services That Can Block Offensive Results. These settings can also be protected with a password.